Evaluation of different biomass gasification modeling approaches for fluidized bed gasifiers

To develop a model for biomass gasification in fluidized bed gasifiers with high accuracy and generality that could be used under various operating conditions, the equilibrium model (EM) is chosen as a general and case-independent modeling method. However, EM lacks sufficient accuracy in predicting the content (volume fraction) of four major components (H-2, CO, CO2 and CH4) in product gas. In this paper, three approaches-MODEL I, which restricts equilibrium to a specific temperature (QET method); MODEL II, which uses empirical correlations for carbon, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6 and NH3 conversion; and MODEL III, which includes kinetic and hydrodynamic equations-have been studied and compared to map the barriers and complexities involved in developing an accurate and generic model for the gasification of biomass. This study indicates that existing empirical correlations can be further improved by considering more experimental data. The updated model features better accuracy in the prediction of product gas composition in a larger range of operating conditions. Additionally, combining the QET method with a kinetic and hydrodynamic approach results in a model that features less overall error than the original model based on a kinetic and hydrodynamic approach. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.